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Tag: Students

When I was a kid I thought that my school’s principal actually lived in the school.

I didn’t see principals as human beings with mortgages and families and their own set of problems and feelings. I just assumed they were there to enforce rules and underwent some kind of ritual before accepting the position as guardian of the school.

So I often wondered what they did when students went home for the day. Did they chill with the janitor? Did they wander the halls doing tricks on a BMX bike? Or did they pull a Mr. Belding from this Dirty Heads music video?

I guess I’m not the only one who had these burning questions when I was a kid, which is probably why Principal David Novy from Ronald R. Albrecht Elementary school decided to come up with this hilarious video detailing all of the antics he gets into while his students are away.

And it’s pretty incredible.

Schools in Brodhead, Wisconsic recently had themselves a snow day, so Novy served up the video to answer the question on all his student’s minds: what’s our principal up to?

As it turns out though, Novy isn’t the only principal providing comedic relief for his students on snow days.

Chad Caddell made a nice little song for the kids at his school.

Gerry Brooks is also a treasure trove of laughs.

Alicia Reeves decided to use the best and worst ’90s rap song of all time to announce schools would be closed.

Some educators weren’t afraid to act a fool.

Sometimes though, principals aren’t the ones starting jokes, but are on the receiving end of them. Like this one principal who was turned into a meme.

Or this wholesome principal prank where students poured a surprise bucket of thank you notes all over him.

Or this classic where students hired a mariachi band to follow him around and play for him.

One group of seniors once put the school property for sale on Craigslist and the principal was bombarded with calls.

And this one principal who really got “screwed” over by their students.

And this one who had a senior class that was very concerned with preserving his office.

I’d like to think that the principals who were on the receiving end of these pranks took them well. Novy seems like a guy with a sense of humor himself so I don’t think he’d mind a good old-fashioned prank war, as long as it doesn’t interfere with his Risky Business hallway dancing.

For years, we’ve all suspected that there was enough room for Jack on that door had Rose simply scooted over and helped him up. In fact, we were so sure of it that the Mythbusters tested the theory out themselves.

But you didn’t have to have your own TV show to show that with minimal effort on Rose’s part, Jack could’ve made it.

And now, Abigail Wicks, Christy Zhang, and Julia Damato from Westminster, England have proven mathematically that Jack could’ve been spared from his impromptu burial at sea.

In an interview with The Advertiser, the 10th graders explained that they could’ve both made it had they climbed onto the door together and stuck their life jackets underneath. 15-year-old Abigail explained:

The group won the National Maths Talent Quest with their airtight submission. It’s no surprise considering that the movie came out two decades ago and people are still arguing that there was a chance Jack could’ve been saved.

In Rose’s defense, you’re probably not going to be all that analytical when you’re soaked and half-dead to begin with.

What do you think? Was Rose unnecessarily vilified over the years or was Jack robbed of his Happily Ever After?

College is the time when many young people first get involved in politics. They’ll go to rallies, volunteer, and put up posters. However, someone at Cleveland State University has been putting up some truly awful and terrifying posters.

The poster reminds the reader about how many LGBT youth commit suicide and asks others to do the same. The poster is attributed to a group called “Fascist Solutions.”

While most people on campus have denounced the poster one significant person has not, the president of Cleveland State University. President Ronald M. Berkman issued statement via email that left many people outraged.

While it can be difficult to distinguish between free speech and hate speech, asking a vulnerable minority to kill themselves certainly seems to fall in latter category.

In fairness, President Berkman did issue a follow up statement apologizing for his earlier comments and expressing his desire to have a discussion.

The poster was eventually taken down but not for the reason you’d expect. It was removed because it didn’t have “prior approval,” which seems to suggest that next time Fascist Solutions will be able to express hateful thoughts as long as they ask permission first.

So far it seems like most people are not happy with any part of the school’s response.

Florida Superintendent Heidi Maier is banning homework for elementary school students in her district. Instead, she’s asking them to read for 20 minutes each night. Where was this woman when I was a kid?!

Though it might seem like this cool superintendent is just three kindergartners in a trench coat, she’s actually banning the homework for a good reason: research shows that it just doesn’t improve academic performance for kids this young. Reading, on the other hand, does.

“The quality of homework assigned is so poor that simply getting kids to read replacing homework with self-selected reading was a more powerful alternative,” said Richard Allington, a reading acquisition expert, in an email to The Washington Post. “Maybe some kinds of homework might raise achievement but if so that type of homework is uncommon in U.S. schools.”

Kids will be able to select their own book with help from educators, and children without a parent available to help them read at home will have access to volunteers, audiobooks, and other resources, according to Maier.

Middle and high school students, however, won’t be so lucky in Maier’s district. So don’t expect Algebra homework to be a thing of the past anytime soon.

At the beginning of the school year, 17-year-old Dyani Heredia’s teacher, Taylor Kerby, complimented a student on his shoes and said he wanted some. So for Christmas, the entire class decided to pool their money together and get the psychology teacher his first pair of Vans.

And his reaction is just too damn sweet.

He said he liked our classmate’s Vans on the first day of school, so we pitched in and bought him his own pair❤ pic.twitter.com/a7ynwdzeGx